5 Defining Qualities of Robots: From Intelligence to Independence

What makes a robot a robot? While ongoing debate among scientists and engineers makes a firm answer hard to pin down, most definitions point to a robot having at least five core characteristics: intelligence, sense perception, dexterity, power, and independence. The question to be answered in any of those is, ‘how much?’

The rapid rise and evolution of generative AI, for example, makes measures of robotic intelligence and perception something of a moving target. Power, dexterity, and independence, meanwhile, are all being pushed into new frontiers by robots with advanced speed, balance, and fine motor capabilities. Today, they can run, jump, lift, navigate – and within the limitations of machine learning – even think.

As the technology evolves, agreement on a robot definition will probably remain elusive. One thing that seems certain is that robots are moving beyond factory machines to become more like the robots of popular imagination – four-limbed, humanoid, walking, and talking.

The following model examines how robots have been defined historically and how different technologies are driving robotics forward in 2025.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. What Is a Robot?
3. How Did Robots Develop?
4. Top 5 Robot Features You Should Know
5. The Bottom Line
6. FAQs
7. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. What Is a Robot?
3. How Did Robots Develop?
Show Full Guide
4. Top 5 Robot Features You Should Know
5. The Bottom Line
6. FAQs
7. References

What Is a Robot?

How to define a robot? The term “robot” is not easily defined, but its etymology is easy to track. It is not a very old word, having been added to the English language in the early twentieth century when Polish playwright Karel Capek presented a unique and prophetic glimpse into the future with his groundbreaking play, “Rossum’s Universal Robots.” Capek chose the word “robot” based on its Old Church Slavonic origin, “rabota” – which basically translates to “slavery.”

As in the Terminator films, Capek’s play depicts robots as future overlords who go to war with human beings. Before becoming an established fiction writer, Karel Capek worked as a journalist. And although the play was a work of speculative fiction, it serves as an apt prelude to the reality of our increasingly automated tech culture.

How Did Robots Develop?

Over the course of the Industrial Revolution, technology developed a rather uneasy relationship with labor. The term “Luddite” is often used to refer to somebody who mistrusts or opposes technology. A Luddite was a member of the English textile workers’ movement who revolted against industrial innovation that left them obsolete during the nineteenth century. This was an early recognition of technology’s potential to disrupt and perhaps ultimately upend the human workforce.

But human society thrives on efficiency, and automation is implemented where human labor becomes too costly and inefficient to justify. Technology has been a noble servant of people in many respects over the years. And although it is inspired by nature, it ultimately seeks to improve it.

Thus, the robots that we’ve designed in our likeness will surpass many of our own human limitations (as many already are). As this evolution unfolds, the idea of the robot will likely become quite abstract, which raises the question of what currently defines robots as physical beings.

Top 5 Robot Features You Should Know

1. Intelligence

Human intelligence is derived from the elaborate and interconnected network of neurons within the human brain. These neurons form electrical connections with one another, but it remains unclear how exactly they collectively cultivate brain activity, like thoughts and reasoning.

Nevertheless, innovations in computation and data mining enable the development of artificially intelligent systems that reflect human intellectual capability.

A robot known as Kismet, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997, decentralizes its computing by separating it into different processing tiers. Higher levels of computing deal with complicated and technically advanced processes, while the lower resources are allocated to tedious and repetitive activities.

Kismet works very similarly to the human nervous system, which consists of both voluntary and involuntary functionality.

Artificial intelligence can be a controversial technology, including how its terminology is applied as well as the subjective nature of AI and whether or not it could ever constitute a form of consciousness. Today, much of the modern debate on human-like AI revolves around their lack of true emotions or personality. Possibly, one of the most unique traits that characterize humanity and its evolution over animals is empathy – a powerful driver influencing many of our decisions and actions.

Machines still lack a true “emotional intelligence,” and it’s probably better if they never have their own emotions – unless we want to see our Alexa refusing to work because she’s angry or sad.

However, the ability of modern AI to recognize human emotion may be beneficial. Even now, generative AI tools show signs of being able to recognize human vocal intonations and adjusting their reactions accordingly.

2. Sense Perception

The technology that empowers robot senses has fostered our ability to communicate electronically for many years. Electronic communication mechanisms, such as microphones and cameras, help transmit sensory data to computers within simulated nervous systems. Sense is useful, if not fundamental to robots’ interaction with live, natural environments.

Simulating Human Senses in Robotics: Vision & Hearing

The human sensory system is broken down into vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste – all of which have been or are being implemented into robotic technology somehow.

Vision and hearing are simulated by transmitting media to databases that compare the information to existing definitions and specifications. When a sound is heard by a robot, for example, the sound is transmitted to a database (or “lexicon”), where it is compared among similar sound waves.

Application in Autonomous Vehicles

Self-driving vehicles are one example of how robotic senses work. A driverless car is stacked with sensors such as LIDAR, RADAR, video cameras, GPS, and wheel encoders that allow it to collect data from its surroundings in real-time.

Advanced perception algorithms will then elaborate this raw data to allow the AI to compare it against a set of predefined items. Robotaxi firms like Waymo have successfully embedded advanced sense perception in their cars’ robotic systems, enabling them to safely navigate busy and chaotic urban streetscapes.

Advancements in Robotic Waste Management

Sense perception is also overcoming one of the thorniest challenges (and most coveted use cases) in practical robotics: automating rubbish disposal.

In 2024, a bin-picking solution from Sereact was able to distinguish between different shapes, sizes, and types of rubbish bins, select the correct type, and empty each into a garbage truck before returning them to the same place.

?? Sereact has secured €25M in Series A funding to scale its pioneering AI solutions for robotics. Led by Creandum, alongside significant participation from existing investors Point Nine and Air Street Capital, and prominent business angels. pic.twitter.com/rlzDArwa2K

— Sereact (@SereactAI) January 20, 2025

Emotion Recognition in Human-Robot Interaction

Much still needs to be done before engineers will truly be able to make human-robot interactions more genuine.

A particularly coveted frontier of machine perceptivity for which modern robotics is focusing all its endeavors is the ability to recognize human emotions from facial expressions. Although not yet fully employed in robotics, early emotion recognition systems are currently tested by several tech companies, including Google (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT).

These not-particularly-intelligent AI-powered systems are being used for a variety of purposes, such as empowering surveillance cameras with the ability to identify suspicious people or gauge how customers respond to advertisements.

Whether these techs will be used for teaching machines how to better understand humans, or just demolish our right to privacy even more, only time will tell.

3. Dexterity

Dexterity refers to the functionality of limbs, appendages, and extremities, as well as the general range of motor skills and physical capability of a body. In robotics, dexterity is maximized where there is a balance between sophisticated hardware and high-level programming that incorporates environmental sensing capability.

Many different organizations are achieving significant milestones in robotic dexterity and physical interactivity.

The United States Department of Defense is host to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which sponsors innovation in the development of prosthetic limbs.

This technology lends a great deal of insight into the future of robot dexterity, but not all robots imitate the human physical form (those that do are often referred to as “androids,” whose Greek etymological origin basically translates as “likeness to man”).

Organizations like Boston Dynamics explore a variety of both bipedal and quadrupedal configurations (with its famous BigDog robot falling in the latter category) while expanding on the idea of extrinsic dexterity in grasping mechanisms.

Anthropomorphic robotic hands that can perform delicate tasks such as opening jars or writing can be used in many circumstances where it is too dangerous for a human to use their own limbs, such as in extreme environments or when handling harmful substances and materials.

Can't trip Atlas up! Our humanoid robot gets ready for real work combining strength, perception, and mobility. pic.twitter.com/f7mcnvbw3L

— Boston Dynamics (@BostonDynamics) February 5, 2024

Reinforcement learning (a relatively new form of machine learning) has driven forward robot dexterity. The algorithms help the machine understand which techniques are more effective in manipulating a certain object or achieving a specific task, similar to what happens with muscle memory in animals. The results are outstandingly dexterous robots that are nearly able to emulate the level of precision of true human hands.

In late 2024, Tesla unveiled the latest iteration of its Optimus humanoid robot. At a Hollywood launch event, the robots were able to move freely amongst a crowd of attendees, converse with strangers, tend bar, and pour drinks on request.

Me, Robot https://t.co/qYaxztoSXA

— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) October 11, 2024

4. Power

Robots require an energy source, and there are many factors that go into deciding which form of power provides the most freedom and capability for a robotic body. There are many different ways to generate, transmit, and store power. Generators, batteries, and fuel cells give power that is locally stored but also temporary, while tethering to a power source naturally limits the device’s freedom and range of functions.

One very notable exception would be the simple machine-based bipedal walking system that relies only on gravity to propel its walk cycle (developed at Japan’s Nagoya Institute of Technology). While this may not qualify as a stand-alone (no pun intended) robot, it could lead to innovations in how robot power could potentially be optimized, or possibly even generated.

A fantastically ingenuous example of how advanced robotics power can be arranged for soft and flexible intelligent robots is using soft smart materials such as dielectric elastomers which can be used as transducers to design intelligent wearable robotics.

The strain-responsive properties of these soft materials are employed to create advanced assisting robots that are nearly self-sufficient in terms of power consumption.

Researchers are now working to align advances in robotic power with the latest renewable energy technologies. ‘Solar robots’ have been developed that can convert sunlight directly into power, allowing them to operate without relying 100% on batteries.

This could have several potential benefits, limiting carbon emissions and cutting operating costs as robot ‘fleets’ continue to proliferate. Consumer robots that use photovoltaic cells as their sole power source are already available for simple applications. The suitability of solar as a robotic power source for heavy or energy-intensive duties remains to be seen.

5. Independence

Intelligence, sense, dexterity and power all converge to enable independence, which in turn could theoretically lead to a nearly personified individualization of robotic bodies. From its origin within a work of speculative fiction, the word “robot” has almost universally referred to artificially intelligent machinery with a certain degree of humanity to its design and concept (however distant).

This automatically imbues robots with a sense of personhood. It also raises many potential questions as to whether or not a machine can ever really “awaken” and become conscious (sentient) and, by extension, treated as an individual subject or “person.”

Another aspect of independence is health and healing. For example, if a robot requires continuous monitoring for malfunctions or ‘injuries’ suffered during operations, can it ever truly be independent?

In 2023, Daniela Rus, an MIT robotics and computer scientist, told Scientific American that the science and engineering of autonomy “requires advancements on soft body components and also on their algorithmic control. We are now using these advancements to make increasingly more capable and self-contained autonomous soft robots.”

The Bottom Line

Depending on the use case, robots will continue to come in different shapes and sizes. Autonomous drones may look like mini helicopters, have tractor treads, resemble toy cars, or swim through water pipes. Factory robots will look more like machines than workers. Robots meant to spend time amongst people may have arms, legs, eyes, ears, and a mouth, while driverless cars will always be cars.

Regardless of the new forms they take, robots will share core characteristics that make them distinct from – and more advanced – than even the most sophisticated human-operated machines.

To what extent will different types of robots become truly smart and independent? How well will they adjust to unpredictable environments and real-world variables? How will they be powered? And what happens if a robot operating remotely becomes damaged or trapped? These are answers robotics researchers are trying to find.

FAQs